


Blackberries

by Spoonzi



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Episode: s01e06 Rare Species, Jaskier Snaps Back, Jaskier | Dandelion & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg Friendship, Not A Fix-It, backhand slap, no beta we die like men, whump?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:41:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24011476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoonzi/pseuds/Spoonzi
Summary: Jaskier Snaps Back
Relationships: Jaskier | Dandelion & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Mentioned Unrequited Jaskier/Geralt, Mentioned Yennefer/Geralt
Comments: 3
Kudos: 157





	Blackberries

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because of my Backhand Slap square on Bad Things Happen Bingo and I wanted Jaskier to stand up for himself when Geralt was being a dick.

“Phew, what a day!” Jaskier tries to let out a chuckle that doesn’t seem strained and he is unsure if he succeeds or not. He’s not good at situations like this where people are upset, especially if it’s people he cares very deeply for. He’s trying for nonchalance, for Geralt to turn around and to tell him to shut up like always before they go about getting back to Roach. 

Geralt does turn to speak to him, not with his usual irritant mood but with that of raging anger. “Damn it, Jaskier! Why is it whenever I find myself in a pile of shit these days, it's you, shoveling it?!”

It hurts. It really does hurt, more than he’d like to admit. His voice is smaller than he’d like it to be when he tries to speak up for himself. “Well, that's not fair.”

Geralt continues, though, with his tongue lashing. “The Child Surprise, the djinn, all of it!” He hisses and the malice in his voice almost has the bard flinching. “If life could give me one blessing, it would be to take you off my hands!”

Jaskier’s jaw clenches of its own accord and the backs of his eyes burn as his closest friend turns away from him. He wants to turn and leave first, and he almost does. Anger gets the best of him, however, and he finds himself stomping up to the larger man and grabbing him by his armor to whirl him around. The Witcher opens his mouth, maybe to continue his verbal abuse, but the bard is quicker. The slap he delivers is hard enough that it stings the back of his hand and forces the taller man’s head to the side

“I admit to my faults and I admit to my shortcomings, Geralt, for there are many.” He hisses but he refuses to raise his voice in anger. “You can blame me for yours all you like but know this. I took you to that party but  _ you _ were the one who claimed the law of surprise. You could have asked for anything. A room, a new saddle for roach, hell the armor off of that man’s back.”

He takes a deep breath to continue and when Geralt tries to speak again the brunet bares his teeth at him like an anima. His hand still stings from the blow he landed on Geralt but he won’t be doing any more of that. “I admit to breaking the Djinn’s container, but your wishes were your own. You do not get to blame me for how they affected you and the sorceress.”

He pushes the Witcher back and his jaw goes tight again as he steps away from the larger man. “Friends don’t blame each other for their issues, Geralt. Come and find me if you ever figure out what it is to be a friend.”

Jaskier gathers his pack and his lute sliding them both over his shoulder, and he forces himself not to look back as he walks away from the man. He doesn’t realize he fled the same way as Yennefer until he comes across her hours later sitting atop a rock. She is staring out at the rolling greenland with long dried tear tracks on her cheeks and he sighs heavily before climbing up onto the rock next to her and sitting down. He drops his pack between them and spreads it open revealing an abundance of blackberries that he’d snagged from several bushes not long ago. 

She looks to him after a moment and then to the berries before looking back at him. He can’t really read the look she’s giving him and the day has been long so he speaks first. “I hold far less care for you than I do Geralt. If you decide to yell at me, too, there will be no love lost between the two of us if I throw you right off of this cliff.”

“He yelled at you?” She asks as she picks up a berry. Her voice is raspy from sobbing and the fruit stains her fingertips dark purple. 

“Spectacularly.” He describes selecting his own berry from the pile and tossing it into his mouth. He lets the bitterness spread across his palette and drift down his throat before he speaks again. “Blamed me for all the shit he’s gotten himself into recently like I’d been choosing his words for him.”

“What did you do?” Yennefer questions as she pulls another berry from the pile, her mouth already stained purple from the first in a way that goes brilliantly with her eyes. 

“I slapped him for starters then I tore him a new one, and I told him to find me when he’s ready to apologize.” The bard explains before sighing for what seems like the hundredth time that day. “I doubt the brute knows what the word means, much less how to do it, but I can’t help but want him to beg for forgiveness.”

“You love him.” The witch says no doubt in her voice and if anyone could have known it would be her. He doesn’t argue with her, and she continues. “You love him without magic or smoke and mirrors, just for who he is.”

“Strange isn’t it. Of course I’d be the one to fall for a horse’s arse like that.” He huffs a laugh that sounds pathetic to his own ears as he takes another berry from the slowly dwindling pile. 

“The first person who loves him for him and he throws them away!” She exclaims gasping with laughter that makes Jaskier’s brows shoot up as he leans away from the woman. When her laughing dies of her eyes go hard and she speaks with anger. “That great buffoon! He had you all along and he threw you away like your love meant nothing?!”

“You think he knew? Come now, sorceress. You are far smarter than that.” The bard sighs pushing more berries into her hand. 

She accepts them and they go quiet for a long time before she speaks again. “That’s why you stayed with him?” She asks and her voice is softer than he’s ever heard it. “Because you loved him?”

“I still do.” Jaskier tells her and the bitter-sweetness of the berries seems to add to their melancholy. He never imagined sitting with Yennefer of Vengerberg on a boulder in the middle of nowhere more alike than either of them ever wanted to be, but here they are. 


End file.
